Don't Give Up On Me
by inothernews
Summary: The Newsroom. Will/Mac post episode 8. The short-attention-span theatre Mac was being forced to produce is driving her up the wall and pushing her relationship with Will to the edge. The two confront their pent up frustration in the midst of the power-loss.
1. Chapter 1

**_Side Note: Okay this is something that randomly popped into my head post-episode 8 and I just quickly wrote it. Idk if this even makes sense but I just had t get it out of my head and I needed to write something will/mac while I figure out how exactly to continue my other fic, haha. Let me know what you think! Reviews make me happy. :D_**

**__****_Side Note 2: We really need some more Will/Mac or just Newsroom in general fics. So, if you ever had a fleeting thought maybe even for just a few seconds, about a scene you wish happened or something, go ahead and write! The Newsroom fandom will appreciate it. Just some words of encouragement for you, :). _**

Mackenzie McHale has never been a devout believer in God, but even she had to admit this was quite the sign.

Groans were heard resounding in the studio from frustrated producers, but Mac breathed a sigh of relief that quickly turned into a subtle smirk.

_Even God knows this is complete bullshit, _she thought.

"Mac?" Herb looked up at her using her his cell phone to light the dark surrounding him.

"Yes?"

"What should we do?"

_Honestly?_ Mac thought, _I don't even care at this point. _

But she couldn't say that right now could she? No, she had to wear the professional face of Executive Producer.

"Someone call the technicians to see if they're on it and if we have a time estimate on when the power will get back," Mac ordered.

Secretly Mac hoped the power wouldn't come back for hours and they'd be forced to scrap the segment-hell, at this point she wouldn't be too disappointed to scrap the night's whole newscast. After all the work the News Night team did to produce an honorable and serious news show, they had to put the cocktail waitress murderer and the man-whore politician on air instead of actual news. This complete dismantling of everything she had put in place was suffocating her and it pained her to watch. Therefore the power-outage provided her with a comforting precipice of darkness from the short-attention-span-theatre. While producers around her called their colleagues and worked through the darkness with only tiny LCD screens of light, Mackenzie closed her eyes and enjoyed the small moment of peace.

However, her peace was soon ruined by an intruder.

"The power in the studio is out." Will exclaimed as he burst through the glass doors.

In the past few days Mackenzie's relationship with Will has been put to the test as the two of them were on edge. The two were constantly at each other's throats with razor sharp rhetoric and sass. Mac could not believe how willing Will was to grovel on his knees for the viewers once the ratings took a dive. In the blink of an eye, the Will they had come to see, the integrity of the show, the intelligent, no-nonsense anchor reverted back to the ratings-obsessed child he was before Mac arrived at ACN. She understood that they had to give in a bit to offset the ratings loss, to bring viewers back, but the extent that they have been milking out every once of emotional manipulation of Casey Anthony and Wiener was unbearable. The last thing she wanted was Will to get fired, but there had to be another option. Mackenzie was not ready to give up their fight for civility, but apparently Will was.

"Really? What makes you say that?" Mac's response to Will was laced with a bitter annoyance that had been growing inside her for days.

Both Mackenzie and Will were extremely aware that the reason for the tension between them lately was about more than simply their change of news coverage. Despite the progress they had made in the past year, despite the warm relationship of trust and friendship that her and Will had regained, he just had to go and hire Brian. The move felt like a blow directly in the gut to Mackenzie.

_What other reason does he have to insist on hiring Brian other than to hurt me and achieve some sort of sick revenge?_ She thought, _Maybe I deserve it…_

_No, _Mackenzie thought. She couldn't keep herself in jail anymore for this. She thought they had at least fostered a mutual respect for each other and this was a petty and childish move on his part. If his intention was to hurt her, although she hated to admit, it was working.

Mac sent Will an irritated glare to send him a message to not bother her at this particular moment.

Will, however, either didn't receive the message or didn't care.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?"

With a roll of her eyes Mackenzie brushed passed him and stormed out of the control room to go see what could be done about the power and also to not be in the same room as Will.

Before she could make her way very far down the dimly lit hallway, Mac heard heavy footsteps following her. Mackenzie had a sixth sense when it came to Will; she knew the footsteps were his. Without looking behind her, she quickened her pace. However, Will caught up with her faster than she anticipated and deftly wrapped an arm around her and swooped her into the nearest empty control room.

In the pitch-black control room Mackenzie couldn't see a thing as Will led her quickly into the room until her back lightly touched the wall behind her. Only their heavy breathing could be heard and Will stood directly in front of Mackenzie; closer than what one would normally associate with "friend-zone." His forehead was just centimeters away from hers and despite the darkness Mac knew his eyes were closed. He had her cornered. The two stood there for seconds breathing each other in as Will kept a his hands on Mackenzie's shoulders. All the pent up frustration, all the pent up tension and anguish of the last few days too overwhelming for either one of them to find the proper words.

"Will," Mackeznie began, but Will cut her off with a barely audible, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry," he again slightly louder than before, but still whispering.

"Are you?"

"Yes."

"Then stop," Mackenzie pleaded.

Slowly letting his arms fall from her shoulders back to his sides, Will took a few steps back, allowing him a moment to think.

When seconds passed by and Will still hadn't come up with a response for her, Mackenzie began to move from her spot against the wall and toward the door.

"I'm still in," Will spoke as Mackenzie's hand graced the handle of the glass door.

Upon hearing his voice she halted in her spot.

"I'm still in the whole 2.0 thing," he continued. "I don't have a need to be loved by strangers. I'm not turning back into a ratings person. I just want this debate and I want to keep my spot in that chair."

He paused in his speech to see if she would turn around and face him, but she stayed with her back to him.

"Look, we have Leona in the palm of our hands with Charlie's source and we will find a way to bring back 2.0, but we just need to give this now because we are in too fragile of a state. I know you hate it. I hate it."

Once again, he paused to see if she'd face him and once again she remained facing forward. Will knew what she was waiting to hear. He let out a sigh and continued.

"It shouldn't take a shrink to figure out why I brought him here."

Mac knew he was referring to Brian. At that moment, she turned to face him and saw the raw and vulnerable look in his eyes. Reciprocating his expression, Mac let her defenses down for a split second and let a single tear slide down her cheek.

"Dr. Habib pointed out that it's probably hurting you and that I'm holding my hand over a flame or a candle-I don't know what the fuck, but Brian's here now and he knows a lot, so I don't know if I can make him leave at this point. He has a good enough idea already of what's going on and although I want to put the guy threw my office window, I know he can put together a decent story," Will spoke without taking a breath.

Mackenzie was surprised that he'd mentioned his therapist. In fact, she assumed he never saw him again. Before Mac could even begin to respond, Will spoke again.

"He said I should forgive you, Dr. Habib. He said that's what I needed to do. I thought I had, but I guess … I don't know Mac, I …" Will didn't know how to continue his thought.

Slowly he took a few steps toward her until he was standing mere inches away from her once again. He pleaded her with his eyes.

"Don't give up one me just yet," Will barely whispered. "I'm getting there."

At a loss of words herself Mackenzie nodded her head slightly, knowing that despite the lack of light, he'd be able to read her. She knew that she'd never be able to say no to him-that if there was even the slightest possibility he could look at her the way he looked at her before her mistake, she'd do whatever it took to get there. She could never give up on him.

"Okay," She whispered back.

Suddenly, light flooded around them as the power returned causing a slight ache to their eyes that had grown accustomed to the dark.

"We should get back to work," Will said softly as he held the door open for her.

"Yeah."

With that, the two exited the control room and parted ways as Will headed back to the studio and Mac returned to the proper control room.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Okay okay, you guys convinced me to add another chapter to this. I love all of you who left reviews on this or my other two stories and I am so sorry I don't update too often or thoroughly edit my stuff. Between class, work and the 30940294 student orgs I'm in, I can barely find time. :( :(. Anyway, this is just a teaser for the next chapter. I am hoping to finish the rest tonight and post it sometime tomorrow. And hopefully post another chapter of my other fic "I heard it" and/or a one shot sometime tonight or tomorrow. It's a three day weekend so I should have some small amount of spare time. Sooo, yeah, call this chapter 2 PART ONE. _**

The chair in Dr. Habib's office was comfortable-almost too comfortable. It was as if after a few minutes of sitting in a session, the cool soothing leather cushion coaxed Will into thinking that therapy was a good idea. Or maybe it was just that Habib knew what he was doing.

He had spent the entire first ten minutes of his session talking about complete bullshit: the stories they were covering, his sleeping habits, and a load of other crap that Habib could see straight through. Will wasn't as opaque as he thought he was and Habib could read him like a book.

In the middle of Will droning on about another meaningless life annoyance, Habib interrupted him.

"So what about Mackenzie?"

Will put on a slightly sour expression in irritation of being interrupted and also irritation of Habib bring up precisely the topic Will wished to avoid.

"What about her?" Will spat back.

"Well, after ten minutes of things that don't make a difference, I thought I'd steer the conversation toward something more productive. How are you and Mackenzie? Has anything changed?"

"Mac and I are fine. She is my EP and I'm the anchor, end of story."

"Right."

"That's the way it is."

"Okay."

Habib's short answers and raised eyebrows told Will he wasn't buying any of his antics.

"I left her a voicemail," Will started.

"A voicemail? When? What did you say?"

"A while ago, early May. I said…" Will had to pause for a minutes. He could barely admit to himself what he'd said that night, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to tell Habib.

"I was high." Will quickly added to set up a context. "I was high and I basically admitted that I still love her; that I never stopped loving her. I asked her if she thought we could ever possibly be together again, but I also asked that if her answer was 'no' to not call back or acknowledge it at all. That sort of caused a problem."

"How?"

"Well, she never got the voicemail. Her phone was hacked and it was deleted."

Habib took a moment to look Will in the eye as he pieced together what happened. It didn't take long for him to fill in the blanks.

"So," Habib began, "You were vulnerable. You poured your heart out to her…"

"I was high though," Will made sure to inject that fact as a disclaimer, but Habib didn't seem to care.

"Yeah, high or not, all of it was the truth," Habib continued. "So, you let her know you still love her, but she never hears the voicemail and you assume she had and all this time you thought she rejected you."

Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Will glanced at the floor, unable to look at Habib directly because he had been spot on in his assumptions.

"So, for a little while you felt that you had been betrayed and rejected."

Will thought about it for a moment.

"Yeah."

"I'm also going to assume that Mackenzie still has no idea what the message said."

Will nodded.

"She knows the message exists now, but not what it said. Although, she's smart. She's most likely already has an idea of what it said."

"And she's been pestering you to tell her."

"Yes," Will said, slightly laughing. If he had a dime for every time Mac asked him what the message said, he'd be rich enough to own an island in the Bahamas.

"Well, she probably does already have a pretty good guess to what it says," Habib said. "So now, she just wants to hear you say it."

Will knew every word Habib said was correct, but he desperately wished it wasn't so. He wished Mackenzie could stay in ignorance and the whole issue would disappear. He desperately didn't want to face this now. Of course, he could simply continue to insist to Mac that he has no memory of what the message said, but he knows that she can tell he's lying. He hates that she can tell he's lying. He hates the she knows him so well. He also loves the she knows him so well, but no body needs to know that.

"I assume you think that I should tell her what the message said," Will said with a condescending tone. He knew what Habib was going to say and he already knew he was not going to follow his advice. However, Habib surprised him.

"No," Habib responded confidently.

"What?" Will stared incredulously. Now, he had no idea where this guy's head was.

"Don't tell her what the message said. You aren't ready to tell her that yet," Habib explained. "I don't think you need to tell her what it said, but I do think you need to talk to her. You will never be able to overcome the hurt simply by talking to me each week. You need to talk to her. The two of you need to work this out together. Once you have done that, then tell her."

**_I know, I know, I know: that was short and totally lacking. Well, it's supposed to be that way because this is really only the opening scene of Chapter 2. I have the rest pretty much either written or planned out. But, I am having some trouble figuring out how to transition from this scene to the next one. I need something in between to make it flow better. Hopefully sometime tomorrow I will post the rest. _**

**_SPOILER FOR CHAPTER 2 PART 2: Mac's knife wound scar will make an appearance. And there will be fluff! Because I am a sucker for fluff. I can't help it. :p_**


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